There's a ton of confusion about immigrants and illegal immigrants, mostly cuz people throw the terms around without knowing the difference. I understand an immigrant is just someone who moves to the U.S., like legally, with visas or green cards or whatever. Illegal immigrants are the ones who came here without the right paperwork or stayed past their visa expiration. The thing is, some people use "illegal" to label anyone foreign-born, which is straight-up wrong and kinda ignorant. It’s like mixing up someone who bought a game legit with someone who pirated it - totally different situations, but people love to generalize.
And don't even get me started on asylum seekers. People love labeling them as illegal, too.